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‘Uber for X’ Model Way Forward for Qatar Tech Startups

More entrepreneurs in Qatar are utilizing the ‘Uber for X’ business model, which offers consumers value for money, and time-saving benefits to customers around the country, according to a Qatar-based tech startup.

Mufeed Ahmed, an entrepreneur involved in the Ministry of Transport and Communications’ (MoTC) ‘Digital Transformation of SMEs’ workshop series, said many tech startups in Qatar are already competing with many players in the market who are still using traditional business models.

Citing ‘Washnow’, an on-demand laundry app that recently graduated from the MoTC’s Digital Incubation Centre (DIC) program wherein Ahmed is part of, the tech company caters to busy individuals seeking an easier ways to address their day-to-day laundry needs.

“The actual business model is called ‘Uber for X’ where ‘X’ is laundry in our case. ‘X’ could also be used for car wash, groceries, or maintenance services, and Qatar is seeing a lot of these kinds of startups coming into that nowadays.

“This is what you’re seeing in the startup ecosystem… so everything is going towards the ‘Uber for X’ business model, which is convenience and money-saving when you calculate the time and the petrol you are spending,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed and his team members in Washnow — Faraj Abdulla, Saleh al-Khulaifi, and Rahid Kader — joined eight other tech startups in the DIC’s graduation ceremony for its 2018 program held in the presence of HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti. They are Qpedia, AIDoha Link, 1 Click Laundry, DietHub, Qeeks, Magaza, Lagyy, and NAS (TechKey).

Ahmed said there is now a rapid growth in tech startups and other disruptors in the Qatari market considering Qatar’s leading position in terms of network infrastructure and high mobile phone and Internet penetration.

“This is what we are actually doing. There is a traditional industry existing for many decades in the country and we are disrupting this industry by giving customers convenience. “And because Qatar has high Internet penetration, people are looking for convenience and time-saving benefits. Whoever is giving customers convenience by getting something done very easily will disrupt other players that are still using traditional business models,” Ahmed pointed out.

In the case of Washnow, Ahmed said the company picks-up and cleans more than 1,000 pieces of laundry per day, and delivers them within 48 hours to customers mostly living in 5-star hotels or hotel apartments.

“On one side you see businesses being disrupted globally, which could be replicated in Qatar, while on the other side, you have ecosystems like tech entrepreneurship ecosystems being fostered and supported a lot in terms of funding and facilities, among others, and this will accelerate the growth for startups.

“Another factor is that you don’t need a lot of in-house developers, designers, or resources to test the market because it’s all readily available online. And in Qatar, being friendly towards tech startups in terms of government support, it is easy to disrupt an industry,” Ahmed stressed.